


The Friend Spot

by Snorp_Lord



Series: Actors AU [2]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Cute Kids, Fluff, M/M, Prequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21629908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snorp_Lord/pseuds/Snorp_Lord
Summary: The adventures of Anti and Sean growing up together in Athalone, meeting new friends and learning new things. Prequel for the Actor AU!
Relationships: Sean McLoughlin/Sean McLoughlin
Series: Actors AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1555768
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11





	1. Graffiti

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tiili97](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiili97/gifts).



> A huge thanks to Tiili97, whose comments always make my day!

Anti first met his best friend while trying to scribble a rude word on the wall of Athlone Castle in Sharpie. Someone in class had blurted out ‘feck’ while fighting outside Anti’s door, so he had immediately run out of his door with markers shoved into the pockets of his too-big bomber jacket and gone for his favourite spot on the castle. His graffiti wall. It was more of a corner, tucked under some crumbling stairs facing the car park, but it was Anti’s spot, and he’d been doodling there for years. Ever since his sixth birthday, when his mother had handed him a pack of felt-tips and told him to go amuse himself. 

‘Amuse yourself’ was her whole style sometimes, it seemed. For most children, that would be a nightmare, and could only cause problems, but not with him. Anti was curious, and ambitious, and he would rather hop out of a window to play outside than listen to his parents when he was grounded. Not that he liked making a nuisance of himself, Anti was just like that. A little spitfire. Eyes like a fae and with all the mischief you’d expect. Some of the locals were just waiting to see little pointy ears develop. Ironically, Anti wasn’t even the worst of the kids from his neighborhood, but he was definitely the loudest. 

“F-E-K.” He giggled as he spelled it out in bold bubble writing. Maybe he had written it wrong? Ironically, of course, like all the cool people did. That would be what he would say if pressed for an answer. Funny how many spelling mistakes could actually be Anti looking cool. 

“Isn’t that a bad word?”

Anti screeched like a banshee, flinging himself back into the stonework so hard it hurt his shoulder, then yelped again at the impact. “Y-You! Don’t just sneak up on me like that!”

The kid reeled back with wide eyes and hands raised in mock surrender. When Anti didn’t unhinge his jaw and swallow him whole, the kid grinned, coming back in to crouch next to him. “Hi. I’m Sean. Everyone calls me Jack though, so if you want, you can call me Jack!” His face was too bright for a human. Maybe he was an alien. A creepy bug parasite that was going to keep smiling until he could get close enough to eat Anti’s face, or lay eggs in his ear. Whatever aliens did in the movies. His mother had always hurried him out before any of the cool gruesome stuff could happen. 

“Get out. This is my wall.” Sean glanced past him, at the scattered doodles in black pens that overlapped in places, and his face suggested that he wasn’t about to go anywhere any time soon. “You drew all this? It’s so cool! You’re awesome! I bet you draw a lot!”

“You...think I’m awesome? You better not be kidding!” When Sean’s face didn’t change, he relaxed and pulled out his marker. “You can draw one thing. One small thing. In the Friend Spot.” He pointed to a blank space about two inches square, outlined by a star shape. “Make it good. And don’t press too hard, you’ll ruin it.”

“The pen or the wall?” At Anti’s unenthused glare, the older boy sighed and just leaned in to draw something. The pen hovered there for a good minute or so as he thought. This had to be good. He had to do the Friend Spot and all of the other cool drawings justice. What to draw, what to draw? 

An idea popped into his head and he grinned, getting to work immediately. “I got something. But you’re not allowed to look yet, okay? You can only see when it’s done. It’s gonna be super awesome. Probably better than all your stuff. Y’know, because of how awesome it is.” For extra security, Sean covered his art by leaning in front of it, his bright green shirt shielding the view. Considering it was about two degrees out, Anti wondered if he might be cold. 

Rather than ask like any normal person, he gingerly unzipped his own red hoodie and dumped it over the other boy’s shoulders. Thankfully he had thought to wear a long sleeve shirt of his own under it (especially since Anti couldn’t stand the cold at all), so it wasn’t too difficult. “There. You look cold.” Sean turned to thank him, and Anti seized his chance to look. “Who’s that supposed to be? They’re kinda small. And why are they holding hands?” 

“...Promise you’re not gonna laugh?”

“I guess. Unless it’s stupid. Then I’ll laugh.” 

“It’s...It’s us.” On closer inspection, Anti could kinda see it. The drawing was no masterpiece, but it was clear enough, two figures with rectangles for bodies and sticks to make their limbs. Little circles represented their hands, joined together dead in the centre of the given space. One figure wore a shirt with a v-shaped neck, the other bundled up in a poorly-drawn hoodie. Had Sean not figured out that he could look back to see what he was trying to draw? Though maybe that would have given it away. It was pretty sweet, all things considered. Sean could have drawn anything. He could have just written another bad word. But not only did he take the time to draw something half-decent, he had drawn the two of them. And they were holding hands. “It’s a friend spot, right? So I wanted to draw us being friends!”

Oh. Anti looked away for a second. “So...you gonna be my friend or what? You got to draw on the spot. You basically have to be my friend now.”

“Yeah! I’ve seen you around at school, so I guess I’ll have to see ya then. Mum’s waiting for me, so I gotta go.” Sean stepped out of the small space, holding Anti’s hoodie around his shoulders. Since Anti was a bit smaller, he couldn’t exactly wear it, so he’d decided to make it a cloak. “I’m keeping this. You can have it back when you come hang out, okay?” 

Before Anti could protest, the other had run off down the street, hoodie still billowing behind him.


	2. Pens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anti and Sean hang out for a bit.

“I miss my cousin. You guys have the same hoodie.” Sean brought it up casually while they were eating gummy bears on the floor of his room. “Do you like superheros too? He loves them. Especially Spiderman. He was so excited about moving, since he’s gonna be in America near all the cool superhero stuff. I think he thinks Spiderman is real. I don’t though. And I know Santa isn’t real either. I saw my dad putting out the presents. My parents don’t know that I know, though.”

The kid hadn’t stopped talking since Anti had agreed to come over to his house. Maybe it was all the sweets Sean was munching on by the handful, or maybe that was just how he was. In general, the older boy bounced around and talked as fast as his mouth would let him. “Santa’s real, you stupidhead. Who eats the mince pies? And the carrots? Duh.”

“Your parents do that. They put the mince pies and stuff out and take a bite when you’re in bed.” Sean giggled a bit, grabbing a bar of chocolate. Purely to demonstrate. “They go like this, look-” He bit down about halfway through the bar. “Then they spit it out in the bin.” Obviously he didn’t spit it out. 

“Then you’d see it in the bin. That’s stupid. Who would spit it out anyway? If they were gross you could spit it out. But not a mince pie. They’re good.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Maybe Santa just eats the food, and gives your parents the presents so they can pass them on? That makes more sense. Because there’s seven million people in the world, so Santa can’t get to all of them in one night. Maybe he brings them in. Ooh, maybe our parents know Santa!”

“There can’t be seven million people in the world. Athalone is a big place, and there aren’t millions of people there. No way. I bet he can get them in one night. He’s gotta have a system. Or a big present cannon.”

“Extreme Christmas!” Sean beamed, snatching up his previously discarded felt tip pens and paper. “Santa has stocking grenades! And the elves have swords made out of candy canes! And the reindeer all have nose lasers that can fix broken Christmas lights!” They both ended up giggling on the floor by the time they were done discussing Extreme Christmas. “I’m totally gonna make that a movie! We can make it a whole series! You can be Santa!”

“I wouldn’t wanna be the main character. You can do it.” Even as a kid, Anti seemed allergic to spotlight, often refusing leading roles in the plays despite his natural flair for performance. When Sean had set up a drama club, he’d been the first to join. Jackie had been the only other member, partly due to the fact that they weren’t an actual club, in the school’s eyes, so they couldn’t have a room to use. At least they had plenty of snacks. 

Sean glanced up with confusion written all over his face. “Why wouldn’t you wanna? That sounds awesome! You’d get to be a cooler Santa. And you’d be on all the posters!”

“Nah, I’ll just be the rogue elf that wants the bike for himself. He sounds cool. And his tragic backstory makes him way better than Cool Santa.” Anti glanced up from his totally not elfsona, not yet having coloured in his cyborg arm, and reached over to steal a gray marker. “Plus Cool Santa doesn’t have robot parts. And the elf does! So ha! He’s better!”

“Nuh-uh! Santa doesn’t need robot parts because he’s Santa! And the reindeer will blast you into the sun if you say no!” 

Or in Sean’s case, just throw pens vaguely in his direction. Most of them landed in his lap or on his drawing. As Anti glanced up, however, one hit him right in his eye, and he yelped. “OW!” Sean gasped, wriggling up onto his hands before throwing himself towards Anti. “Your eye! Oh no, no, don’t cry, my mum’s gonna ground me, don’t cry! I’ll give you my sweets, just don’t cry!” Just to prove it, he quickly tossed his remaining snacks into Anti’s lap. “Please don’t be sad!”

“You fuck!” Anti sniffled, both hands protectively covering his eye. It was only a pen, but oh goodness did it hurt. “How could you do that?” 

“I didn’t wanna! Oh geez, come on, lemme help!”

“No!” Even as Sean went to help, Anti scrambled up, still giving the other boy a hurt look. “Leave me alone! I’m gonna go die in a corner and turn into a zombie and then I’m gonna come back and eat your brains and you’ll be a zombie too!” Sean’s offended gasp set both of them off giggling. Finally Anti uncovered his eye. “How does it look?”

“Oh...oh yikes. Yeah, don’t panic, but I’m gonna go get my mom. Don’t want it to go septic!” Sean bounced off down the stairs. “Just wait there!”

“...What’s septic…?”


End file.
